Equine Facilitated Learning

Rowreach

Rowreach

Adjusting my sails
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13 May 2007
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Using natural horsemanship techniques to work with children and young people (particularly the disabled/disadvantaged) and horses/ponies - do any of you have any experience of this or have any of you trained/qualified in EFL please?

Thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated and general observations welcome!:)
 
No experience whatsoever, but can see how it would work, esp with those with learning difficulties I think. I've read the Horse Boy which is very good too :)
 
A friend of mine works with disabled and disadvantaged kids using horses, it's amazing to see the difference in such a short time- the kids that wouldn't talk, had been abused by adults running up to the horses and throwing their arms around them, chatting away to them etc. He also rehabs ex-racers, I think there are similarities! Even the young horses or the flighty ones let the kids handle them. It's awesome. Pm me if you want contact details.
 
I'm seriously interested in this subject! I work in a school for children with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties and have been using my horses as a form of therapy for them for 3 years! My ex racer Toffs is the best horse for it, i think its something to do with her Crappy life she had before me and the difficult life a lot of my boys have lived, they seem to have an affinity, also they need the same things, understanding, patience, respect and someone to be in control to make them feel safe! It is wonderful watching the boys learning about themselves by working with the horses! Would love to get qualified and eventually run a centre for E A T using rescue horses and ponies! This is the life goal!
 
there is a yard near here which does this........... and has funding !!!(WTF) all the facilities are .... the horses/ponies look like s... and seems to have evaded all the planning permisions etc! even went to the open day and was gobsmacked! as for the tack well............. and the fitting of the tack ....knock me down! seems like a way to milk the system. if you know how!
 
i work with teenagers and adults with learning difficulties and challanging behaviours and quite often use animals and horses to get through to them, they like the feel of a guinea pig and talk to it. most are scared of horses but are happy to say hello over the door at first coz they cant see how big there bodys are lol.. i start a degree in september on this subject and me and my friend are going to run a centre so would be interested to know actually how you go about setting it up and what qualifications you need to be legal. it wont be for at least four years but weve already started planning ;)
 
I am a primary school teacher in a special needs school for children with emotional and behaviour difficulties and also very interested in the IH way of things.
Our children started sessions this year and they sessions are great. The children we have find it difficult to read emotions and to express them in the correct way, these sessions have helped develop these skills. Also we have worked on team building exercises.

It is an area in its early stages for us and children only go for 6weeks due to funding. I believe it should be weekly all year for our children.

I would also like to do this myself one day as I believe with my horses experience and teaching experience it is something I would be good at. Just need to find the hours in the day to train and investigate further!!
 
I am hugely interested in this too, having seen first hand the difference horses make to autistic children. Its something I looked at getting involved in last year, but came to a dead end. any info on how to get qualified would be much appreciated!
 
I am finding there is so much jargon and ****** written about EFL on a lot of the websites that it completely overshadows the simple fact that anyone, be they disabled/disadvantaged, young or old, can benefit hugely from interaction with any animals, but particularly horses which reflect our emotions so vividly. I've been involved in Pat Dogs schemes before and have seen some amazing results from that. I am meeting someone later today who is interested in setting up an EFL project and if I glean anything useful I will report back!

ofcourseyoucan I am saddened to hear that about your local yard - I thought they were quite strict on the criteria for this sort of thing:(
 
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